Brian Walton's news and commentary on the St. Louis Cardinals (TM) and their minor league system

Where’s Walton?

I am currently at St. Louis Cardinals camp in Jupiter, Florida. Attending two instructional league games each day and A-Advanced Palm Beach contests at night means my extra time is at a premium.

Subscribers to TheCardinalNation.com have received a steady diet of exclusive content with much more to come.

New content coming soon includes a Thursday camp report plus an interview with Johnson City manager Johnny Rodriguez on extended spring training standouts.

Palm Beach interviews ahead include manager Dann Bilardello, outfielder Charlie Tilson, pitchers Marco Gonzales and Sam Tuivailala plus features about new coach Ricky Meinhold and a great story about one of his recruits who later became a Cardinals prospect.

Loved what Mo said about not being satisfied. He needs to keep after these guys and keep making roster tweaks. We need to fight for every advantage, however small.
Wong was up to .344 at Memphis, so it makes sense to bring him back to platoon with Ellis. This tandem can give us a nice lift. We hope both men are now ready to be productive.
Jhonny has his average up to .250, nice work. Got the winning rally going last night.
It seemed like Matt Adams got thrown off by defensive shifts during the post season 2013. He came up small in the playoffs. In response, he is going with pitches and has a good batting average, but the slugging is not there. He also seldom walks.
The kind of weak performances by Craig and Adams suggest Oscar should be promoted, once he gets past Super 2 status.
In the interim, its great Mo can promote Jaime Garcia. Goodness knows what he will be able to do, but the faithful fans want to see some changes. If he can still pitch, Garcia could turn out to be a god-send, in the absence of Joe Kelly.

Aside: Beaumont High School in St. Louis is closing, which is baseball related because it sits on the site of Robison Field, long ago home of the Cardinals. It is the alma mater or HOF managers Earl Weaver and Dick Williams, manager of the Red Sox vs the Cards in the 1967 World Series.

Aboit 25 years ago I took my oldest son up there with out gloves just to play catch on the site where the stadium once stood.

Cards need offense also.Adams has what? 11 RBIs? Craig stinks right now.Matt Carpenter is a shell of last year.At this rate Peralta will be the team leader in HRs with 24 and RBI leader will have 65 or so.Unless this team gets it act together it will be lucky to finish 81-81.

I dont see the logic behind such pessimism. Thye team is over .500 while playing predominately on the road. They have Motte and Garcia coming back. They have some potential offense in Memphis. Mo has been successful with deadline trades and he probably has more trade chips than ever. They may not reach 90+ wins but there is no reason to think they’ll be below .500 in the end.

I see a team going thru the motions.That`s what I see.A lack of urgency.A whole lot of “who gives a damn”.That is the picture I see.Counting of Jaime Garcia is a pipe dream.He`s as tough as paper.marshmellow man.I hope things change but that`s how I see things so far this season.

CC, you talk about being over .500 at the end like a Cubs fan. That is just not an acceptable goal for the Cardinals. The quality of play we have seen for a quarter of the season is not acceptable. Cardinal fans are entitled to a better team playing better ball.

Not a gambler.Good for you.I feel the Cards have too many problem areas to be a serious challenge for the division.Very poor RISp hitting,a lack of power hitting,Matt Carpenter huge dropoff from last season,Holliday `s lack of pop and Craig also,instabity at 2B and Matheny`s mismanagement are all roadblocks for the Cards.
The starters can`t seem to hold a lead,Matheny will use Rosenthal till his arm falls off,I am seeing a team unable to put together a long win streak and a team incapable of coming from behind late to win.

One thing the Cards are going to need to find is an effective cleanup hitter. Allen Craig could become this. Adams could become this. But neither has been good enough as yet.

The Brewers have Braun, Gomez, and Amaris Ramirez. They have some sluggers, but the Cards not so much. If we are not hitting for high averages, as we are not, then we are going to struggle offensively, because we do not have the slugging either.
With Pujols and Beltran moved on, we lack a big time hitter in the lineup.